


Limits

by SylverFletcher



Series: Carmen and Player being best friends and crime buddies fight me let my kids be happy [8]
Category: Carmen Sandiego (Cartoon 2019)
Genre: Chases, Friendship, Gen, Mission Gone Wrong, Panic Attacks, Suspense, supportive Player as always
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-03
Updated: 2019-02-03
Packaged: 2019-10-21 22:26:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,199
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17651036
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SylverFletcher/pseuds/SylverFletcher
Summary: Some called her a ghost or a phantom, unable to otherwise explain her ability to vanish into thin air without ever being seen. But the fact was, she was human, just like anyone else. Somewhere, sometime, Carmen Sandiego would encounter something she couldn’t handle, whether she was aware of that fact or not.And Player was determined to be there for her when it happened.(Part 4/20 of Player/Carmen "found family" prompts)





	Limits

**Author's Note:**

> I was gonna actually take a break and not do a fic today, but then I looked and saw today was THIS prompt and then I was like, oh I'm doin it.  
> Also I tried a thing this time with making Player's dialogue in italics because he's speaking through her earpiece. Like it? Hate it? Let me know! I kinda like the way it looks, personally.

**4\. First time realizing you can rely on them**

* * *

 

It was bound to happen eventually. It had to, it was inevitable. Regardless of how strong, or how brave, or how well taught, no one was perfect. No one could be composed all the time, everyone broke down eventually, even if they were the best there was.

And Carmen was no different.

Some called her a ghost or a phantom, unnatural and from another world, unable to otherwise explain her ability to vanish into thin air without ever being seen. But the fact was, she  _ was _ human, just like anyone else.

She had her limits, too.

And Player knew, at some point, they would find out what those limits were. He expected it, he knew it had to happen. Somewhere, sometime, Carmen would encounter something she couldn’t handle, whether she was aware of that fact or not. So Player waited, watching, his entire focus on every move she made, every step of every mission, every change in her tone. There was no stopping the fact it would, eventually, happen. But what he  _ could _ have control over was determining to be there, the day it did happen.

He just didn’t expect that to be today.

 

She lost the artifact.

Well, it was still where it started. But  _ she _ didn’t have it, she’d messed up, there was no reaching it now. The whole building on lockdown, bars and cages hiding away the things she came here for, blaring red lights and a screeching alarm sending her pulse skyrocketing.

She had to get out. Escape, and try again another day.

But how?

Carmen ran down halls and past barred windows, searching desperately for a way out. It shouldn’t be this hard, she always had an escape route,  _ where was it? _ She was breathing faster, eyes darting all over, searching for anything she could use to get out. But there was nothing, only smooth walls and barricaded entrances and that horrid red tinge the lights had taken, a far cry from her usual affectionate feelings toward the color.

It felt like the alarm was screaming at the same pace as her heart, panic gripping her limbs in a heavy, cold dread. The further she ran, the more she found nothing, and the more her anxiety skyrocketed. This wasn’t the usual easy, in and out, over and done with and no one knows a thing, mission. This was going  _ completely _ wrong, and there was no team of other thieves she could believe in to save her from it, not anymore. There was no team of super villains to pull strings and make all the mistakes disappear, no one to get her out if she messed up.

She was on her own. She had to find a way out. _She_ _couldn’t afford to fail._

Hurried footsteps began echoing down the hall, the kind of deep thud of heavily geared riot boots, coming closer and closer. There were so many, so loud, filling her head with a cacophony of noise and sending her heart rate through the roof. They were so close, only walls away from finding her, and there  _ still wasn’t a way out. _

The red thief ducked into a side door at the last second, her blood cold with dread and her fingers feeling numb as she fumbled with the door handle. She felt dizzy, mixed with a dissociative feeling of  _ this can’t be happening, _ and the room blurred at the edges. The alarm was still screeching, now blending with the clamour of her pursuers and creating a relentless buzz of noise in her head that seemed to get louder with every step. Everything tinged red as blood, her lungs burning and her vision seeming to pulse with the noise. Or was that her heartbeat? She couldn’t tell the difference, only the feeling of cornered terror trying to plunge a full lockdown of her own as the relentless dissonance all around echoed through every part of her being.

She was still running, crashing into walls in her haste and hearing the mob of guards slowly catching up to her. It was nothing more than a mad dash now, darting into every random door she spotted, sprinting through rooms and to the next and hoping, desperately, that one would somehow magically lead to a way out. None of them did, most only leading to nothing more than dead ends that made her nerves spark and burn even more than they already did, and costing her precious ground to backtrack before she was caught.

And that was how, on what felt like the hundredth door, she crashed into a supply closet and then the sound of her pursuers was  _ right outside and there was no escape. _

Carmen pressed all of her weight against the door and glanced hopelessly around the tiny space, her frame trembling as she searched for  _ anything. _ But there was nothing, no way out, nothing to hide her, nothing to help her break free past the people outside. It felt like something in her was trying to break apart, pain shooting through her chest as every breath felt like it gave no air at all.

She was trapped. She was caught.

She’d  _ failed. _

Her body slid down to the floor, her legs giving way under her. The shadowed shapes within the closet blurred and multiplied, swaying to the pulsing of her vision and the tremors in her hands. Part of her started wishing she’d wake up, that this was all just a terrible nightmare, and the other part knew this was real and there was no getting out of it. Just the thought was enough to make a panicked noise escape her, and she clamped her hands over her mouth, trying in vain to hide her already discovered presence.

_ “Red, listen to me.” _

She couldn’t answer, couldn’t dig herself into deeper waters than she was already in. Maybe if she stayed here, silent and in the dark and hidden away in this tiny room, everything would be okay. Maybe they wouldn’t find her. A muffled whine still managed to escape her at the hacker’s prompting, though, and she squeezed her eyes shut and curled in on herself to silence it.

_ “No, it’s okay. Try to breathe. Look up, look around the closet. Can you see anything out of place?” _

There was nothing else she could do, so Carmen tentatively did as he said, after a delay of several seconds. But it was still hazy, reminding her only of the threat looming on the other side of the door, and her breath hitched.

_ “Okay, that’s okay. You can look in a bit. Right now you can just stay where you are, that’s fine.” _ Player’s voice was impossibly level, not an ounce of fear in it.  _ How _ could he be unafraid at a time like this, wasn’t he worried? All the same, she latched onto the sound with every bit of focus she could muster.  _ “Now, just take a deep breath, Carmen. Nice and big, there you go, now breathe out slowly. You’ve got this.” _

At first, the room only swayed more, but the multiple copies of everything she could see slowly began to stitch back together into singles. Player’s voice was cutting in over the majority of the noise, closer and louder in her ear than the alarms outside, as he patiently helped her time her breathing.

_ “You’re doing great Carmen. Keep doing that, just like that, count to fours between breaths if you start to lose pace. I need just a second, okay? But I’m right here.” _ She didn’t argue. Couldn’t, really, but if he wasn’t leaving it was probably fine. The red thief just did as told and tried not to think of anything else, tried to ignore the dread that was trying to creep back in. All the while, she could still hear Player’s voice, but it was muffled and distorted as if he were speaking to someone else, for just a few moments.  _ “Okay, done. How are you doing, Carmen?” _

“I--” She cut herself off when she heard footsteps outside again, but they were…  _ moving away? _ They thudded down the hall and away from her door, some passing right by it and making the hair on the back of her neck stand on end. For those few moments she froze, waiting for the worst and forgetting to breathe again. But none of them tried opening it, and soon, the hall was silent.

It was only when she took in a jagged breath that she realized the alarm had been cut, too.

_ “You okay? Can you check around the supply closet, now? There should be a loose panel behind the shelf.” _

Blinking, and moving almost on a sort of autopilot, she did as she was told. Just as Player said, there was a loose wall covering wedged behind the supply shelf, and it wiggled free with just a bit of tugging.

Behind it was a maintenance vent.

“Player, you…” Carmen tried to croak out, her voice impossibly weak.

_ “Talk later. Can you make it inside? It should lead pretty much directly to the roof, from there you can hang glide down and over the fence at the back.” _ Player said, his voice still steady and strong as it had been the whole time. It was a welcome and comforting sound as she crawled inside the space.  _ “I’ve got a cab waiting for you on the next street over.” _

Choosing to just follow his instructions instead of trying to question him, Carmen made her way through the small tunnel, trying to be as silent as possible. Though she could see straight again, and there was no longer a cacophony of noise pressing in at every side, everything almost felt as if it had been paused. As if the whole building was holding its breath, giving off an eerie feeling of stillness.

Or maybe it was just disbelief that somehow, she was getting away. When she’d been completely convinced that this was it.

The trip to the roof was a short one, and soon, the thief was popping her head out into the night air. It was deserted, thankfully, not a guard in sight, though there was supposed to be one here. Maybe he had joined the mess further downstairs, investigating her failure of a caper.

_ “Alright, Red. See the hotel across the street from the back? Head over there. Your ride’s waiting just behind it.” _

It was only once she was in the air that Carmen started to feel the last of the apprehension blow away in the breeze, and once she’d landed on the darkened sidewalk, she could finally take a deep sigh of relief.

“I never want to do that again.” She commented, the exhaustion already catching up to her and making her voice heavy.

_ “Same here.” _ Player gave a sigh of his own, and it was only then that she noticed just how tired he sounded, as well.

“Player, how did you…” Carmen trailed off as she walked in the shadows, unable to find the words.

_ “Well, I dug around for an older blueprint of the building and found out about the maintenance shafts they’d walled up during the last renovation.” _ He explained, chair creaking as he leaned back in it.  _ “And I managed to get onto the police radio frequency and pretended I was another officer that saw you escape, and that you’d only fooled them into thinking there was something in that closet.” _

“And you lured off the guy who was  _ supposed _ to be on the roof.” Carmen filled in, discreetly ditching her iconic outfit before she reached the car. “And got me a getaway driver.”

_ “Yup. Just the basics.” _ His tone was inching toward proud, but his words were humble. It was then, on that night of a failed mission as she ducked into the awaiting cab, that Carmen realized just how much Player had saved her skin.

She’d never asked. And yet, he’d been there the whole step of the way, listening and watching closely enough to pinpoint when she’d finally gotten in over her head. And then handled  _ everything _ all on his own, from a distraction to the entire escape, when she couldn’t even think straight. Without him, she’d be a panicked mess in the back of a squad car by now, a sitting duck wrapped in handcuffs and just waiting for V.I.L.E. to come find her.

“Player.” She got his attention, firmly saying his name and earning a pause and a confused  _ “What?” _ before continuing. “You saved me tonight. You’re the only reason I escaped,  _ you _ made this happen. Thank you.”

There was another pause, and she smiled, picturing him gawking at his screen with a blush on his face. The hacker  _ really _ didn’t know what to do with praise, sometimes.  _ “It was nothing, Red. I’m here to help.” _

“It was everything. You did great.”

Even the great and mysterious Carmen Sandiego could get in over her head, find her limits and lose her composure. But with backup like Player, especially after the way he proved what he could really do under pressure tonight, Carmen was confident she’d be just fine.

**Author's Note:**

> You can't convince me Carmen didn't freak out on a mission or two after she first started, and that Player doesn't know exactly how to deal with panic attacks.
> 
> Also highkey you guys should watch the AMV I made about Carmen yesterday I need validation lmao https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qshAQ-zEkNk


End file.
